Certain medical procedures require the heart or lung of a patient to be kept still. This may be necessary in order for a surgeon to perform surgical procedures, such as cardiac surgery. While the heart is unable to circulate blood or the lung is unable to re-oxygenate blood or to remove carbon dioxide, heart-lung machines are used for life support, providing extracorporeal oxygenation to maintain a supply of oxygen to a patient.
More recently, extracorporeal oxygenation has been explored for the management of viral infections (such as H1N1) that affect lung function by causing pulmonary embolisms. Patients suffering from such infections may require long-term ventilation, in the region of several weeks (typically 20 days, but in severe cases ventilation may be required for several months, e.g. for up to 180 days), in order to facilitate treatment and drainage of the lung, and in order to permit the lung to rest and heal while the patient's immune system is given an opportunity to defeat the viral infection.
The present invention seeks to improve ventilation management.